Clad in a white dhoti and jiba (short kurta), the first thing you notice about Youtuber Narayana Reddy, in his videos, is his effortless style of cooking. The other is the way he twirled his mustache with a smile aimed at the camera for the millions of subscribers who follow his videos on Youtube. More than his recipes, his fans, both in India and abroad, loved to see the grinning faces of children for whom he cooked gigantic batches of food.
After feeding hundreds of children and amassing the appreciation and love of 6.31 million subscribers, the 73-year-old sadly breathed his last on 27 October 2019.
Reddy launched his YouTube channel—Grandpa Kitchen in August 2017 and posted his first video where he made scrambled eggs of 2000 eggs and donated it to the homeless. This video became a runaway hit with 26 lakh views and about 3830 comments.
Reddy's death was announced via a video posted on his YouTube channel on 30 October 2019 and at the time of writing this article, the video already had 5.3 million views which still continue to increase steadily. Commiserations poured in from all parts of the world – Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Trinidad & Tobago, among others. Each comments speaks of how real the loss was for many and how most felt that they had lost their own grandfather.
Safiyia Stanfley, a resident of South Africa, in a Facebook post said, "Grandpa, you not only touched the hearts of your community but the hearts of the world. What an inspiration you have been, may we all aspire to be like you and do what you did. RIP."
Anna Tyson from Alabama posted, "Rest In Peace grandpa! I smiled every time I heard his laugh at the beginning of his videos. He loved a lot of people through his food. Rest on sir."
Amongst all the videos of Grandpa, the video with the highest viewership (38 million views) is of him making crispy French fries for orphans. The video begins with grandpa washing, peeling and cutting the potatoes and then setting up the cooking space.
While the potatoes boil in the water, he sits by the fire eating watermelon. What's amazing is that there is no voice-over in the video and you just watch him at work. Yet grandpa is able to hold the attention of the viewer for the entirety of the 13-minute video. Once done, he packs the french fries and ketchup in aluminum packets. The video ends with a shot of grandpa munching on the French fries, saying, "French fries, super!"
With grandpa's passing, his fans, not to mention the children and people he served food to, are already feeling the void. The question that they all seem to be asking is, what now? Who will take forward this legacy that grandpa has left behind?
If you have seen Grandpa's videos and would like to share a memory, do write to us.